Soylent, the downtown-based maker of nutritional shakes and meal-replacement products, is expanding throughout Canada.
The expansion includes the brand’s first entry into brick-and-mortar retail locations at Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc., Thrifty Foods and Sobeys stores.
Soylent has partnered with grocery wholesaler United Natural Foods Inc., which is based in Providence, Rhode Island, to continue its expansion in Canada, according to Soylent.
In addition to currently being able to purchase Soylent products through Amazon.com Inc.’s site, Canadian consumers will be able to buy the brand’s products through Walmart’s Canadian online marketplace, the company said.
A selection of Soylent’s drinks and powders will be available across all five of the retailers, including its best-selling drink flavors, Cafe Mocha and Chocolate.
Ross Sklar, chief executive of Starco Brands Inc., Soylent’s parent company, said he was thrilled to expand the brand’s presence in Canada.
“We’ve worked diligently with our partners at UNFI Canada to ensure that our highly functional, non-dairy and high-protein beverages and meal replacements remain widely accessible to Canadians through each of our in-store and online retail partners,” Sklar said in a statement.
Soylent was founded in 2013; it sells plant-based protein and meal-replacement shakes, powders and bars that are low in sugar and high in protein. A one-time purchase of a 12-pack of Soylent’s chocolate high-protein shakes costs $39, or $3.25 a bottle. Customers can also subscribe for deliveries at lower price points. They are also sold in the U.S. at retail stores including Walmart and Target.
Soylent was acquired in February by Santa Monica-based Starco, a publicly traded company that also owns the brands Whipshots, a vodka-infused whipped cream; Art of Sport, a body-care brand designed for athletes and co-founded by the late Kobe Bryant; Winona Popcorn Spray, the theater-popcorn spray; and Skylar, a fragrance that the company claims is safe for sensitive skin.
Soylent has had difficulties in the past in getting its products distributed in Canada.
From the fall of 2017 until April 2020 its products had been banned following the Canadian Food Inspection Agency declaring that they did not meet requirements to be sold as “meal replacement” products.
“We are glad to be back in the Canadian market with the same high-quality, complete-nutrition products,” then Chief Executive Demir Vangelov told Forbes magazine at the time of the reinstatement in April 2020. “It took us longer than we excepted, but we have now caught up on proper government paperwork.”
The company is now in 121 retail stores throughout Canada.
